Does Your Team Need to Disconnect from Work?

Do you and your staff regularly check email and answer calls and messages over the weekend and during evenings after work? Ever feel like few of you truly disconnect from work, even when you’re supposed to be having dinner with family or on vacation?

If so, you might be interested in a new law in France that reflects the growing sense that employees in the digital age can’t disconnect from work. The new regulation there requires employers to set formal policies to keep work from encroaching on employees’ off time, including laying out hours, generally in the evening and during the weekend, when employees should not send or answer emails.

While it’s unlikely we’d see such a law here in the U.S., at least any time soon, it’s worth thinking about whether there’s pressure on your team to be hyper-connected outside of work and whether you have a role to play in addressing that.

If you notice someone staying connected to work through technology 24/7 when their role and their work doesn’t require it, name what you’re seeing and ask if they’re feeling pressure to do that, and what you can do to help them disconnect.

Know that people will take their cues from you, so pay attention to the habits you’re modeling. If you regularly email late at night and from vacations, people may infer that they’re expected to do the same, no matter how earnestly you tell them that they’re not.

If you do write emails at night, save them as drafts and wait until the next morning to send them, unless it’s truly an emergency.

If someone doesn’t truly need to be hyper-connected to work outside of normal work hours, you might even suggest they consider removing their work email account from their phone – or at least turning it off on the weekends.

Of course, complicating matters, it’s also worth recognizing that some people like the flexibility of being able to work odd hours. You don’t want to frustrate and demoralize people by denying them to work in the ways they prefer, all in the name of improving their quality of life, so be willing to work with people to figure out systems that work for them but still ensure that they get real time away from working and thinking about working.